Rising Above Rejections

Throughout history and in more modern history, there is a lesson of rising above rejection. Let’s look at the meaning of rejection and how it affects our lives.

Rejection: The noun rejection can refer to the actual act of rejecting something or to the feeling one has after being rejected. In other words, you might have feelings of rejection after experiencing the rejection of others.

When we are finding love in our lives, we may have experienced rejection when someone turned us down for a date…or even a marriage proposal. Rejection is also felt when a person may ask for a divorce. It could even mean when family members decide not to be part of the family unit. These are all hard experiences. Many people experience; feel terrible about it and then decide that life must go on and rise above it.

In history, we read about the lives of very famous people who have experienced rejection in the public arena and made amazing comebacks. Here are a few to consider:

Abraham Lincoln is one of our most famous Presidents. His heart-aches, illnesses, and rejections should encourage anyone to keep trying. This list is long, but worth reading:

1832 Lost job Elected company captain of Illinois militia in Black Hawk War

1833 Failed in business

1834 Elected to Illinois State Legislature

1835 Sweetheart died

1836 Had a nervous breakdown

1842 A jealous man challenged him to a duel. Abraham Lincoln traveled to Alton to meet James Shields in a duel. Friends of both opponents negotiated a truce, and the duel was averted.

Reelected to Illinois Legislature and received license to practice law

1837 Led Whig delegation in moving Illinois state capital from Vandalia to Springfield. He became law partner of John T. Stuart

1838 Defeated for Speaker, but was nominated for Illinois House Speaker by Whig caucus Re-elected to Illinois House (running first in his district)
Served as Whig floor leader

1839 Chosen presidential elector by first Whig convention and admitted to practice law in U.S. Circuit Court

1840 Argues first case before Illinois Supreme Court
Re-elected to Illinois state legislature

1842 Admitted to practice law in U.S. District Court

1843 Defeated for nomination for Congress

1844 Established own law practice with William H. Herndon as junior partner

1846 Elected to Congress

1848 Lost nomination (Chose not to run for Congress, abiding by rule of rotation among Whigs.)

1849 Rejected for Land Officer Admitted to practice law in U.S. Supreme Court
Declined appointment as secretary and then as governor of Oregon Territory

1854 Defeated for U.S. Senate

1856 Defeated for nomination for Vice President

1858 Again defeated for U.S. Senate

1860 ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A few other modern-day Presidents had their setbacks before winning the Presidency.

Former California Gov. Ronald Reagan ran for the 1976 Republican presidential nomination. Incumbent President Gerald Ford beat him in the crucial New Hampshire and Florida primaries. Though Reagan was able to win some of the later contests that year, Ford edged him out at the convention.

Photo by John Gaps III

In his first race for office, Bill Clinton narrowly lost to incumbent Republican House member John Paul Hammerschmidt of Arkansas. He later became attorney general and then governor. But he lost his first gubernatorial reelection race in 1980.

George W. Bush also entered political life by challenging an incumbent House member. In 1978, he ran against Texas Democrat Kent Hance, who mocked the Yale graduate as a clueless preppy from Connecticut. Hance won.

Photo by Eric Draper, Courtesy of the George W. Bush Presidential Library

Photo credit: AP Photo/Manuel Balce CenetaIn 2000

Barack Obama ran in an Illinois Democratic primary against Representative Bobby Rush. Like George W. Bush, he found that an Ivy League education was not necessarily an advantage. Representative Rush exploited Obama’s Harvard law degree to suggest that he was out of touch with the district. Rush smashed him by a two-to-one margin.

To all aspiring writers, take hope from some of the best and most successful.

Rejection Letters from publishers:

JK Rowlings got 12 rejections before making a billion dollars on Harry Potter.

Dr. Seuss’s rejection said “Too different from other juveniles on the market to warrant its selling.”

William Golding wrote The Lord of the Flies, selling 15 million copies. His rejection letter said, “An absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull”

(Credit about these 3 authors from a young writer, Christian Mihai, who is following my novel, The Seeds. Thanks, Christian)

As all can see, perseverance is always the best policy if we believe we have something to give to this world. I write because I enjoy it and it’s challenging. I may never have a great book published that the world will remember or make a fortune. That is not my goal, but joy in what I do is worth all the effort. In fact, my mind is completely absorbed, when I am writing, from the disappointments that could bring me down.

Rising above your rejections, whatever they may be, will bring renewed life and hope into your world. Never give up!